According to recent research, mums only have 26 minutes of time to themselves each day. Not much, is it? My kettle takes fifteen minutes to boil so that doesn’t even give me time to make two cups of tea (applies sad face).
‘The Changing Face of Motherhood’ report which highlights the findings of extensive new research from Proctor & Gamble into the role of motherhood from the 1930s to the present day, makes for fascinating reading.
75% of survey participants feel their mother’s generation had more time to bring up their children as the pressure of work and a career takes mums away from the home, but 62% of participating mums did agree that modern labour saving devices free up their time when they are at home so they can spend more quality time with their children. Thank goodness for the dishwasher and tumble dryer or we may quite possibly never see our children at all!
The report reflects the pressure Irish mums feel to provide children with activities and constant supervision. Ahh, that old chestnut; the relentless pursuit to be the prefect mum which I, by the way, have realised is a totally pointless exercise. There is no such thing as a perfect mum, despite the fact that celebrity magazines and  Hollywood movies would have you believe there is. Maybe if we stopped worrying about how we look at the school gate (does anyone really care?), or were content to see our children kicking a ball in the garden rather than racing around to get them to endless classes to learn how to become talented, then we might, just might, find a little bit more ‘me time’ to add to those 26 minutes.
Who’s with me?

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